Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Fatal accident inquiry to be held into death of diver off Orkney

Orkney councillor animal charges

A sheriff is to hold a probe into the death of a diver whose skipper was later prosecuted for breaching health and safety laws.

Rodney MacLean, 33, lost his life when he was diving for scallops and got into difficulty underwater.

He failed to surface from the sea near Orkney and a massive rescue operation was launched to try and find him in March 2012.

His body was eventually discovered eight months later in November.

The Crown Office has now announced that a fatal accident inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the death will be held at Kirkwall Sheriff Court.

Following his death, an investigation was launched by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) which found various safety issues relating to the diving operations on the MV Hildona which he had been operating from.

It was discovered that there had been a failure to ensure a diving plan risk assessment had been prepared and that divers had been briefed on arrangements.

Shaun Geddes, the skipper of the boat, was then charged over the incident and appeared at Kirkwall Sheriff Court.

He admitted breaching health and safety laws and was ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work.

The court was told how Geddes failed to ensure the divers taking part in projects held appropriate qualifications and had certificates showing they were medically fit to dive.

A preliminary hearing in the inquiry will be held in September.

On his Facebook page, Mr MacLean had described himself as a ‘self-employed diver – and loving it’.

During the search, his heartbroken daughter Amanda pleaded for her missing dad to be found safely.